The television appearance, recorded Monday afternoon, capped off the duo's amazing three-day weekend in Los Angeles, which included a professional basketball game and a chance to meet several re- nowned NBA stars.

REPORTER

Aaron Bracamontes

Montanez on Monday posted a picture on Instagram of his and Marcus' "Elllen" show dressing room.

The two high-school basketball players, Montanez from Franklin and Marcus from Coronado, gained national attention after the story and video of their touching moment in a Feb. 12 basketball game became a viral hit.

In that game, Franklin's Montanez passed the ball to Coronado's Marcus, a special-needs student who was the team manager but got to play in the season finale.

The pass, along with some help from his Coronado teammates, allowed Marcus to make a last-second basket in his only high-school game.

Video of the pass and shot went from being a hit on social media to being a national feel-good story in local media, and on the CBS Evening News and ESPN's SportsCenter.

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Los Angeles Clippers point guard Chris Paul also saw it. With the help of Scooter Braun, singer Justin Bieber's agent, Paul flew both Marcus and Montanez to a game Sunday at the Staples Center and introduced them to several NBA stars.

Marcus and Montanez got to meet Paul, Blake Griffin and Ronny Turiaf of the Los Angeles Clippers and Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Then on Monday, they were taken to a taping of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show."

Aaron Bracamontes may be reached at abracamontes@elpasotimes.com; 546-6156. Follow him on Twitter @AaronBrac